Tongue for a shoe



p 2 1934- c. MILLER 1,974,721

TONGUE FOR A SHOE Filed Jan. 22, 1954 250 I 24 25 25 30 3 42 H05 I a6FI7E o6I a9" INVENTOR CHARLES MILL ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 25, 1934UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TONGUE FOR. A SHOE Charles Miller, LongIsland City, N. Y. Application January 22, 1934, Serial No. 707,627

4 Claims.

This invention relates to the shoe art and deals more specifically witha tongue of the type which hangs freely outwardly of the shoe.

In tongues of the foregoing type difliculty has 5 been experienced incausing the same to hug the shoe neatly at the instep portion.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a tongue whichfits the instep accurately and which is preshaped to lie naturally andneatly upon the same.

And it is a further object of this invention to provide the tongue witha means for holding the same in a predetermined shape transverselythereof.

A further object of this invention is to so form one of the parts of thetongue that the said tongue is caused to lie in intimate contact withthe instep portion longitudinally thereof.

These and other objects of the invention will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art from the following description taken inconnection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a shoe having a tongue constructed inaccordance with the prescut invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the shoe shown in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of an assembled tongue.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the tongue as seen from the underneath side.

Figs. 5-10 inclusive are plan views of the separate parts which make upthe tongue.

Referring in detail to the drawing a shoe of any suitable constructionis provided with a tongue 3520 which is sewed to the vamp of the shoe bystitches 21 (Fig. 2).

The tongue 20 consists of an internal section having an apron 22 towhich is sewed by stitches 23 adjacent the edge 22a to a holding piece24.

401 The piece 24 has cut out along one side a dart 25 and the edge ofthat side, including the margin of the dart is skived as shown at 26.The opposite side edge is suitably ornamented by cutting out certaindesigns therealong, or in any other suitable manner. The dart is nowclosed by stitches 27. This forms a belly 25b in the part 24 with theresult, that when the same is assembled and mounted in the shoe, theexternal section of the parts of the tongue 30 and 35 depending from thebend along the line of stitches 28 are made to adhere closely to thecontour of the instep of the shoe in a longitudinal direction. Thestitches 28 serve to make the fold line sharper and more The fold lineoccurs at the point 25a, and since the belly formed in the blank 24 byvirtue of the dart 25 occurs at this point, when the piece 24 is foldedalong the line 28 the folded edge has in it a convex line as shown inFigs. 1 and 3 with the apex of the curve at 2522.

Overlapping the piece 24 is another section 30 having a concave side 31the edges of which are skived at 32. The opposite side of 30 is suitablyornamented, as shown for example in the draww ing. Two parallel lines ofstitches 33 attach the members 24 and 30 together in overlappedrelation.

An end piece 35 shaped similarly to 30, having a concave side 36 andskived edge 37, is sewed to 30 by stitches 38. The end 39 of the piece35 is suitably ornamented, a fringe 40 and holes 41 being preferablyused. On the under side of the end piece 35, a piece 42 is sewed forminga closed pocket in which a strip 43 ofa light flexible metal, such aslight sheet brass, is enclosed. The strip 43 holds any particular shapeinto which it is bent, and therefore serves the purpose of holding thetongue in a transversely curved shape, it being merely necessary topress the tongue against the instep and the strip 43 takes 0 the shapeof the transverse curvature thereof.

It will be understood, of course, that this invention is not limited toany of the types of ornamentation disclosed, nor to the number andrelation of the parts herein disclosed, except as 5* defined in theappended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A tongue for shoes comprising an apron which is attached to the shoe,a holding piece H having a closed dart therein, an end piece, a sectionjoining said holding piece to said end piece, a pocket formed on saidsection, and a sheet of metal enclosed in said pocket.

2. A tongue forshoes comprising an apron attached to the shoe inwardlythereof, an external section joined to said apron and being foldedoutwardly of the shoe and along the instep thereof, means in conjunctionwith said fold to maintain the external section in contact with theinstep portion of the shoe longitudinally thereof, and means mountedupon said external section to maintain the same in any predeterminedcurvature transversely of the shoe.

3. A tongue for shoes comprising an apron at- V tached to the shoeinwardly thereof, an external section joined to said apron and beingfolded outwardly of the shoe and along the instep thereof, means inconjunction with said fold to maintain the external section in contactwith the instep portion of the shoe longitudinally thereof,

section joined to said apron and being folded outwardly of the shoe andalong the instep thereof, and means in conjunction with said fold tomaintain the external section in contact with the instep portion of theshoe longitudinally thereof.

CHARLES MILLER.

